There's a few bugs in the interview system that are yet to be ironed out, too - you can put a car on pole and still be berated for one minor excursion. One thing that hasn't improved much, sadly, is the character models. It looks fantastic, the changing conditions that are part and parcel of the sport - and sadly a part of too few racing games these days - more readable than ever before. A new lighting model basks everything in more convincing rays that look all the more splendorous in HDR never has the grey gloom that hangs over Northamptonshire on a typical summer weekend at Silverstone been better serviced. Some of these improvements have been inherited from F1 2017's post-launch support - a photo mode, for example, that lets you admire the dimples of the tread wear indicators on each tyre as you examine the car models in 4K glory - while others make a little go a long way. The improvements are minor but many, and they add up to a more than credible whole. Last year's F1 game was brilliant, and thanks to a few tweaks here and there, this year's is even better.
How about doing away with the barebones menus and returning to the more premium front-end of those older games? Or fixing the UI so it's a little less cluttered and more in line with the FOM's official feed? And how about introducing some of the feeder series that make up the travelling circus, so we've got something to play with beyond F1 cars? Maybe these updates are to come in future editions, as the series makes its typically gentle progress - tied down as it is to yearly instalments, even if you suspect the resources aren't quite there to meaningfully move the games forward on an annual basis.īut to linger on that for too long would be a disservice to the work that Codemasters has put in over the years, and the outstanding package that its F1 games have become. F1 2018 is the real deal, though - even if results such as this come via a little tinkering in photo mode. You might remember that Codemasters was once the master of the bullshot.
It's cute but comes off inconsequential - there are no really mischievous answers available, or at least I've yet to come across the chance to ask a fellow driver to suck my balls - and of all the features to focus on, it's surely low down on most players' lists. Eight years on and it's not that much more convincing, a dead-eyed interviewer asking you some fairly banal questions with only a fairly banal selection of replies available, the results impacting gently on your standing within the team and its various departments. The headline new feature is media interviews - something that returns from the series' first HD outing, F1 2010, before it was quietly jettisoned a little further down the line. To get a handle on what's new you'll need a cheat sheet to hand, and it hardly makes for compelling reading.
Availability: Out August 24th on PC, Xbox One and PS4.